Jenny McCarthy

Wonder Woman: Jenny McCarthy

Think what you will of the stance former Playboy playmate cum advocate Jenny McCarthy has taken on autism, but there's no denying that this impassioned mother has helped bring the battle to cure the developmental disorder to the forefront of our attention. While her first three books made us laugh our way through pregnancy and our first years as parents – who can forget her description of what really happens on the delivery table – she has come to symbolize one side of the autism debate in America.

In May 2007, McCarthy announced that her son, Evan, was diagnosed with autism after suffering from a series of seizures following his measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. Since then, she has been very vocal against the use of mercury in childhood vaccines and for the use of Chelation therapy to treat affected tots. Much to the dismay of many scientists, doctors and her fellow Hollywood mamas, McCarthy has co-authored a book detailing how she and Evan's pediatrician helped her child recover. While the debate wages on, McCarthy has made it her mission to help fellow mothers and find a cure.

Nobody has been able to replicate Andy Wakefield's findings except Andy Wakefield. Even his own researchers have admitted he was cooking his data. He did find some false positives, but that was because his measles detections assay was so poor it was cross reacting with human samples.
Autism One and DAN! are not sources of scientific information. Try PubMed for a reliable listing of research studies from reputable journals.

5 years

To the poster who wrote:
"She is simply yet another graduate of Google University. Someone who thinks she's an expert because she has read a bunch of stuff on line about a topic. Parents -- please make decisions regarding your children's health based on scientific research and the advice of a medical doctor, not based on the word of a former Playboy bunny!"
If you go to "Google University" you can research the Autism One and the DAN! Conferences. There are plenty of "medical doctors" and scientists who attend these medical conferences each year and report on the gut dysbiosis, heavy metal toxicity, low methionine and glutathione levels etc. that these kids are suffering from. The word of a "playboy bunny" would mean nothing if tens of thousands of families across the country haven't made the same discoveries on their own. And unfortunately there are more of them every day. I'm assuming you're aware there have been billions of dollars of vaccine damage payouts thru VAERS since it was first created?

5 years

Actually, Andy Wakefield found the vaccine strain measels virus running amok in the guts of the autism kids and there have been at least two prominent independent studies that backed up his findings. All he did was say that until more research was done into potential problems of a combination vaccine with three live viruses, it would be wise to vaccinate with separate measels/mumps/rubella shots. He never said don't vaccinate.

"These parents’ beliefs and observations were reinforced by a small study of bowel disease and autism, published by Wakefield and his colleagues in 1998 (Wakefield et al 1998).The study’s authors suggested that there was a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.This study did not include scientific testing to find out if there was a link.The authors relied on the reports of parents and families of the 12 children with autism involved in the study to make their suggestion. The study did not provide scientific proof that there was any link. " -NIH
It is also noted that Wakefield faked his data and was paid by people suing the MMR vaccine manufacturers. Those parents may noticed symptoms in their child soon after the vaccine because that is the age autism emerges. In their heads they linked the vaccine to the symptoms and saw what they needed to see.

"These parents’ beliefs and observations were reinforced by a small study of bowel disease and autism, published by Wakefield and his colleagues in 1998 (Wakefield et al 1998).The study’s authors suggested that there was a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.This study did not include scientific testing to find out if there was a link.The authors relied on the reports of parents and families of the 12 children with autism involved in the study to make their suggestion. The study did not provide scientific proof that there was any link. " -NIHIt is also noted that Wakefield faked his data and was paid by people suing the MMR vaccine manufacturers. Those parents may noticed symptoms in their child soon after the vaccine because that is the age autism emerges. In their heads they linked the vaccine to the symptoms and saw what they needed to see.

5 years

If Jenny McCarthy is so great, then why is she shunned by a large part of the autism community? She is simply yet another graduate of Google University. Someone who thinks she's an expert because she has read a bunch of stuff on line about a topic. Parents -- please make decisions regarding your children's health based on scientific research and the advice of a medical doctor, not based on the word of a former Playboy bunny!

5 years

I have personally met parents who know beyond a shadow of a doubt that vaccines caused autism in their children. These are parents who had a perfectly normal, healthy baby whose movements and ability to make eye contact and communicate drastically changed shortly after a vaccination was administered. One father tearfully told me that he remembers his son's movements dramatically changing on the ride home from the doctor's office. These people have nothing to gain other than standing up for their children who have been hurt and trying to help others. As someone above me posted, it is the drug companies who make a fortune from immunizing children. It is a twisted world in which we live.
Also, a parent of a boy who has autism was on Larry King a little over a week ago talking about how in Europe the amount of vaccines is far less than in the U.S, and the incidence of Autism is also far less. He was on the panel with Jenny Mccarthy and Jim Carrey. None of the parents on the panel were advocating for NO vaccinations - they were not radical like that AT ALL. The only thing these parents want is for LESS vaccines with more research so as not to endanger any more children.

I think Jenny has received a lot of bad publicity, as a lot of people have heard & read random things about her beliefs, and formed their opinions from that.Jenny has done a lot of research, and while she may OR may not be wrong when it come to ways to prevent/treat autism in every case, she has done the research with regards to treating HER son. There is no denying that her son has improved by leaps and bounds, and as a mother, I think she deserves support from other mothers. And if that were me, and I found a way to improve my son's quality of life with small, every day changes, you can bet I'd be telling everyone I could too!

I think Jenny has received a lot of bad publicity, as a lot of people have heard & read random things about her beliefs, and formed their opinions from that.
Jenny has done a lot of research, and while she may OR may not be wrong when it come to ways to prevent/treat autism in every case, she has done the research with regards to treating HER son. There is no denying that her son has improved by leaps and bounds, and as a mother, I think she deserves support from other mothers. And if that were me, and I found a way to improve my son's quality of life with small, every day changes, you can bet I'd be telling everyone I could too!

I think claiming that she has cured her son's autism is dangerous, especially as he is still a young boy. It seems that autism can worsen with the onset of puberty. She's definitely within her rights to say that the diet/program she created for her son helped him and to share that information, but assuming your child is cured and not seeking proper medical treatment (I'm speaking in general, I'm not sure if she continues with his medical treatment or not) can have very damaging effects. Here's an article on the subject:http://jezebel.com/5185744/blaming-herself-and-letting-it-go

I think claiming that she has cured her son's autism is dangerous, especially as he is still a young boy. It seems that autism can worsen with the onset of puberty. She's definitely within her rights to say that the diet/program she created for her son helped him and to share that information, but assuming your child is cured and not seeking proper medical treatment (I'm speaking in general, I'm not sure if she continues with his medical treatment or not) can have very damaging effects. Here's an article on the subject:
http://jezebel.com/5185744/blaming-herself-and-letting-it-go

5 years

I'm curious as to where you got your information backing up the statement that Jenny hasn't looked at any scientific evidence.
It's been publicly admitted by the CDC that the safety studies have never been done on the COMBINATION of the shots in the current vaccine schedule. Never. Does that not matter to you?
The former head of the NIH has even stated that "you can't turn your back on a group of people because you're afraid of what you may find."
You'd think asking for more research (independent research--by people who don't profit one way or another from the outcome) would be the prudent thing to do. How can anyone say what doesn't cause autism if they can't tell you what does?

5 years

I'm sorry, but Jenny McCarthy has only done a disservice to the entire scientific community. Despite no evidence to back up her claims, who knows how many people now believe her? She has set science back another 20 years. I can understand her concern as a mother, but as a developmental researcher, I can't condone her not looking at any scientific evidence and really backing up her claim with a single-sided, case-study theory.
Anonymous, anyone giving your child ritalin for autism should not be a doctor (or psychologist).

5 years

I have personally met recovered kids and there are thousands of them. I have one of them. It completely blows my mind that doctors have not only NOT seeked out these kids to study them and figure out what made them better but actively discourage parents from even TRYING. But I guess if they figure out these kids ARE in fact environmentally damaged then the next step is to figure out how they got there and that will never happen. Better to give them ritalin at a young age than (God forbid) some vitamins and organic food. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that giving little kids a ton of injections full of things to hyper-stimulate their immune systems might be a bad idea when like 1 in 6 kids now have "auto-immune" dysfunction. And the fact that the combination of the shots on the vaccine schedule have NEVER been studied as a package just blows my mind. But whatever. They can tell me she never had it in the first place (she did), or that she's not really recovered because that's impossible (she is and it's not) and at the end of the day it doesn't matter because I have my daughter back and that's all I care about.

As much attention as she brought to autism, she pretty much single handedly killed herd immunity for some people. Many, many studies have come out denouncing her claim but people still believe it. I just wonder how many kids got sick because of the panic she caused.